An ancient name remembered

In the summer of 2018 I traveled to Wales for a conference in Cardiff. Immediately afterwards I visited my dear fiends Caroline and Tim Palmer in Aberystwyth, and they gave me a tour of Welsh sites they found particularly interesting. It was a spectacular trip, and I learned and saw so much.

One afternoon we visited a sixth century memorial stone in a field near the coastal village of Penbryn, western Wales. (The image above is from this site.) It is a micaceous ferruginous medium sandstone block about 1.4 meters high inscribed with “CORBALENGI IACIT ORDOVS”, which translates to: “Of Corbalengus (here) he lies, an Ordovician”. This carved stone is Celtic and one of the very few monuments mentioning the Ordovices tribe, which is the namesake for the Ordovician Period. Corbalengus is thus popularly known as the “Last of the Ordovicians”, or at least the last of the tribe for which there is any record.

Tim and I thought at the time that Corbalengus should be memorialized in the taxonomic record, recognizing the connection between the Ordovician Period and the vanished tribe for whom it is named. This year my Estonian, Russian and German colleagues and I had the opportunity to name a new species of Ordovician tubeworm as Conchicolites corbalengus Vinn, Wilson, Madison, Ernst and Toom 2024 (pictured below). Appropriately, it is from the Hirnantian Epoch at the end of the Ordovician.

Conchicolites corbalengus is from an abundant and diverse fauna of cornulitid tubeworms found in Estonia. These particular tubeworms appear to be dwarf forms compared to other varieties. These specimens also suggest that cornulitid tubeworms were little affected by the Late Ordovician extinctions. Our work here is part of a larger effort to describe the evolution and paleoecology of tubeworms through the Phanerozoic. They are excellent subjects for this kind of work because they have a moderate number of morphological features that are easily studied and assessed.

This story, though, is about the mysterious Corbalengus, for whom we have only a carved name on a lonely Welsh stone in a field. He must have had some notable reputation in life to merit the carving and erection of a monument, but we’re unlikely to ever know the details. But he had a name. One of my favorite childhood songs was Jim Croce’s 1973 hit “I Got a Name” —

Like the pine trees lining the winding road
I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name
Like the singin’ bird and the croakin’ toad
I’ve got a name, I’ve got a name

And I carry it with me like my daddy did
But I’m livin’ the dream that he kept hid

Corbalengus may not have been thrilled to be immortalized by an extinct and nearly-microscopic wormtube, but the fact that we know his name at all is a tribute to ancient stonework and the modern system of taxonomic records.

Reference:

Vinn, O., Wilson, M.A., Madison, A., Ernst, A. and Toom, U. 2024. Dwarf cornulitid tubeworms from the Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) of Estonia. Historical Biology DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2024.2318796

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Meet two new Ordovician fossil species from Estonia — a cover story

The conical fossil above on the cover of the latest issue of Palaeoworld is the paratype of Conchicolites parcecostatis, a new Ordovician (Katian) cornulitid species from the Korgesaare Formation, Sutlema quarry, Estonia. It is tiny, only about two millimeters long. This species, and another new one below, are now formally described and assessed by Vinn et al. (2024). I’m proud to have been on Olev Vinn‘s team for this project, which also included Ursula Toom (Tallinn University of Technology) and Anna Madison (Russian Academy of Sciences).

Above is the paratype of the other new cornulitid species from the same location: Conchicolites sutlemaensis.

The fossils in the Korgesaare Formation of Estonia are diverse and have abundant small cornulitids representing at least a half-dozen species of the genus Conchicolites. This group, the smallest of the cornulitids, appears to have been adapted to soft, muddy seafloors, unlike most other cornulitids that are found attached to hard surfaces such as those of carbonate shells and hardgrounds. These new fossils are thus further documentation of an evolutionary trend towards diverse substrates among the cornulitids in the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE).

Cornulitids, for all their ubiquity in the Lower to Middle Paleozoic, are still phylogenetically mysterious. We don’t yet know their larger evolutionary history, so we can’t definitively place them in any particular phylum yet. They seem most likely related to the microconchids and tentaculitids, which are themselves difficult to place. Cornulitids went extinct in the Carboniferous and apparently left us no living descendants to study.

So, these unassuming little critters have their roles to play in life’s history as they present us with new mysteries to solve. Welcome to the world of named taxa, Conchicolites parcecostatis and Conchicolites sutlemaensis!

Reference:

Vinn, O., Wilson, M.A., Madison, A. and Toom, U. 2024. Small cornulitids from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) of Estonia. Palaeoworld 33: 57-64 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palwor.2022.12.005).

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Two new Upper Ordovician bryozoan papers appeared this week

Readers of this blog will remember Kate Runciman, a 2022 graduate of The College of Wooster and now a graduate student at the University of Cambridge. Her Independent Study thesis (after peer review and revisions) has now been published in a conference volume from the 2022 meeting of the International Bryozoology Association (Runciman et al., 2023). She studied growth patterns within large trepostome bryozoan skeletons from the Cincinnati, Ohio, region. They are from various units in the exposed Upper Ordovician (Katian) rocks.

The images above are from acetate peels, with the scale bars equal to 0.50 mm. Figure A shows zooids that grew laterally over a cavity opening, sealing it off with a flat “roof” (C/W-152-2; Amplexopora (?) filiasa). Figure B shows zooids that budded down into a cavity and then angled upwards (C/W-152-1; Amplexopora robusta).

In this new paper, Kate and her colleagues explore the paleoecology of trepostome bryozoans and the various organisms that interacted with them on the Ordovician seafloor. They cover topics from borings, bioclaustrations and parasites to self-overgrowths, brown bodies and “ghosts” of boring inhabitants.

The second paper in the same volume is from a project led by our friend and colleague Caroline Buttler, who is based in the Department of Natural Sciences, Museum Wales, Cardiff. She led a team using non-destructive 3D imaging technology to explore skeletal details of Paleozoic palaeostome bryozoans. The results are spectacular (Buttler et al., 2023). The images obtained by X-ray Micro Computed Tomography (X-ray μCT) and Microscopy (XRM) are have exquisite details.

The images above show the silicified fenestrate bryozoan Oeciophylloporina in 3-D (A) and a “digital thin section” (B). Amazing detail. The specimen is from the Lower Silurian (Aeronian) of the Derenjal Mountains in central Iran.

Another example of the application of this X-ray μCT (the part I was directly involved in) was to look at the internal features of borings in hemispherical calcitic trepostome bryozoans. The above images show a bryozoan from the Upper Ordovician (Sandbian) of Estonia (C/W-231-1). In A the borings are shown in transverse section; in B the segmentation of the borings with the rest of colony are made digitally transparent. We’ve just started to explore what these tomography techniques can tell us about the development of these borings, their possible inhabitants, and how the bryozoans responded to them.

Fossil bryozoology advances!

References Cited

Buttler, C.J., Mitchell, R.L., Wilson, M.A. and Johnston, R.E. 2023. Applications for x-ray tomography/microscopy of Palaeozoic palaeostome bryozoans, p. 1–8. In: Key, M.M., Jr., Porter, J.S. and Wyse Jackson, P.N. (eds) Bryozoan Studies 2022. CRC Press/Balkema, Abingdon and Boca Raton.

Runciman, K.M., Wilson, M.A., Buttler, C.J. and Judge, S.A. 2023. Colony repair strategies in large trepostome bryozoans from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) of the Cincinnati region, USA, p. 105–111. In: Key, M.M., Jr., Porter, J.S. and Wyse Jackson, P.N. (eds) Bryozoan Studies 2022. CRC Press/Balkema, Abingdon and Boca Raton.

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Paleoecology class at Wooster finishes the semester in great style

I was very fortunate this semester to have such a fine class of paleoecologists. This course broadly covers the Earth’s ecological history, so it consists of principles, theories and processes illuminated with case studies, all strung along the thread of geological time. I thus depend on the students to bring in lots of questions and their own research on special topics. This class was brilliant with thee happy tasks. Part of the charm was how many disciplinary majors were represented, from the Earth Sciences through Archaeology and Biology. The above class photo was taken at the end of our last class, which was devoted to student research presentations.

We also had the final lab session in the afternoon. We had many lab projects, but the most challenging has been our analyses of the Upper Ordovician fossils we collected in the first week of classes.

Here is one of the student trays near completion of preparation, identification and labeling.

And our delightful (and very quiet) class mascot was Feather, the companion and service dog for Elise. He is so well trained that there were days I didn’t even know he was present!

A delightful class. I miss them already.

 

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An Exciting Trip to Tour Unconventional Oil and Gas Wells

This semester’s Geology of Energy Resources course, which focuses on how fossil fuels form, are extracted, and are used, had the opportunity to visit two unconventional oil and gas wells run by Ascent Resources located in southeastern Ohio this week. While most people in the Appalachian Basin think of the Marcellus Shale when it comes to natural gas, this area of Ohio targets the underlying Upper Ordovician Utica Shale.

The trip started with an early morning drive from Wooster down to Salesville Ohio, to visit an unconventional well that was in the final stages of the drilling process. As the vans neared the location the top of a tall metal structure was visible over the trees and an excited murmuring amongst the students began. As the vans pulled up to the gate the group was surprised to see towering walls surrounding the well pad with the top of the drill rig just visible.

After a warm greeting by our hosts each person was outfitted with their own PPE including the ever-stylish blue fire-resistant coveralls, hard hats, and safety glasses (as seen in the first picture and the photo below) and given a safety briefing. What was originally planned as a one-hour tour of this well quickly turned into an almost two-hour tour as there was so much to see and learn, and all the employees even while working were eager to explain and show the students each component of the well drilling process. Students learned that the walls were to block the sound of the drilling process which continues 24/7 until the well is drilled which takes 1-2 weeks from start to finish. Guides walked the group through each stage of the drilling process allowing the students to touch and see the drill pipe, well casings, drill bits, and more. All the while the rig was pulling up drill pipe piece by piece with a rumbling whirr, dropping it into the guiding rails with a loud clang before it was transported to pallets ready to be moved to the next drill site. The group even got to go up onto the derrick of the drill rig and watch the drill pipe being removed from the well up close, which is a very muddy process. By the end of the tour there were no clean shoes (as shown above), but everyone was in great spirits and were eager to see the next well pad.

A short drive later the group arrived at the second well pad which contained four actively producing well heads. This location was in sharp juxtaposition to the loud, crowded, muddy, and constantly moving drilling site. Here there was a solid layer of coarse gravel and distinct areas with machinery and pipes with large spaces in between for vehicles to pass through and little to no mud, though the smell of off gassing from the compressors carried on the air. The no less enthusiastic tour guides at this location walked the group through the plethora of safety measures present at the well pad to ensure worker health, but also protect the environment. Students followed the process from the well heads where the oil and gas exit the well, through the 3-phase separator which isolates oil, gas, and water, to the pipeline which carries the gas to processing facilities, and finally to compressors and storage tanks for the oil. As the temperature began to drop toward the end of the tour and stomachs began grumbling, the tour wrapped up.

Despite the chilly temperature, the group enjoyed a late picnic lunch at Salt Fork State Park, along the shores of Salt Fork Lake. Even as everyone dug into their lunch the discussion was on everything they had seen and heard throughout the day. Finally, everyone hopped back in the vans to warm up and drive back to campus. The discussions continued during the first part of the drive until students began to doze off from the combination of an early morning, exciting but busy day, and the cold weather with a warm car.

Students will be writing a report about the trip and will also be using the information they gained in a class debate regarding the potential pros and cons of oil and gas wells.

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A delightful little field trip in Ohio with a Polish-American team

Today was astonishingly beautiful in Ohio: bright blue skies and the peak of fall leaf colors. By happy circumstance, I had three Polish paleontologist friends visiting Wooster after the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh last week. Greg Wiles very generously drove us down to Caesar Creek State Park for a few hours of fossil collecting from Ordovician exposures in the emergency spillway of the lake. From the left the team consisted of Greg Wiles, me, Jakub Słowiński, and Michał Zatoń, the latter two from the Department of Palaeontology & Stratigraphy, University of Silesia. Tomek Zatoń took the photograph.

We’ve recorded this locality many times in this blog. I just want to record this trip and show the best fossil find of the day. Above is part of the cephalon of the large trilobite Isotelus maximus. Michał found it in the float on the spillway floor.

Again, wonderful day. Thank you Greg Wiles for your participation and driving. And thanks to my Polish friends for making this field trip possible on a sunny Monday.

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Freshwater sponge and diatom team presents at the annual Geological Society of America meeting in Pittsburgh

This summer Garrett Robertson and Minnie Pozefsky performed superb research on the sponges and diatoms in a core from Brown’s Lake near Shreve, Ohio. Their project is summarized here. Today Garrett presented their work, along with others on the NSF-funded team, at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Garrett is pictured above with the poster. (Thanks, Greg Wiles, for the image!)

Minnie Pozeksky, shown above, specialized in the diatoms, mastering their taxonomy, paleoecology, and statistical distribution. She is now a first-year student at Williams College. Garrett is finishing his Senior Independent Study at Wooster on the sponges this year.

In this photomicrograph, one of Garrett’s sponge spicules is above, and one of Minnie’s diatoms is below.

Garrett and Minnie were a fun, creative and very productive team to work with. Their work will continue as we add to it over the next summer.

Wooster was very well represented at this GSA meeting by faculty, students and alumni. We have a proud tradition of mentored research at Wooster. At meetings like this, where our current students converse with our alumni, we see the compounding value of this research over the years.

Reference:

Robertson, G.R.*, Pozefsky, M.E.*, Wilson, M.A., Wiles, G.C., Wiesenberg, N., Lowell, T.V., Diefendorf, A.F. and Corcoran, M. 2023. Preliminary analysis and paleoenvironmental assessment of the sponges and diatoms preserved in a Late Holocene to Recent sediment core from Brown’s Lake, Wayne County, Ohio. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, vol. 55, no. 6, doi: 10.1130/abs/2023AM-392825.

 

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The distinguished paleontologist Dr. Julia Clarke visits Wooster’s Earth Sciences department.

The distinguished paleontologist Dr. Julia Clarke visited our Paleoecology lab in Wooster yesterday. She was there as a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar. She was wonderful with her several fascinating talks and many interactions with our students. Everybody is happy in this picture for a reason. A very high point for Wooster paleontology and the other Earth sciences. Thank you Emily Armour for this image!

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Work continues on our Ordovician paleoecology project

The Fall 2023 Paleoecology class is continuing to work on its Upper Ordovician fossil collections from our field trip at the beginning of the semester. Part of the class is shown above sorting their specimens and identifying them as precisely as possible. The other class members are in the basement with the rock saw and grinders. It’s a real-world experience including preservation and taphonomy issues with the vagaries of some taxonomies. The students took ownership of the joys and dilemmas of paleontology from that first field day.

Here are two trays in progress. Students are now using scraps of paper to record their observations and identifications. Later we will use more formal labels.

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A Wooster Geologist visits Fallingwater, southwestern Pennsylvania

While on our short Fall Break vacation in Pennsylvania, my wife, daughter and I visited the iconic Fallingwater. It must be one of the best known family houses short of Windsor Castle. Fallingwater is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is on the US National Register of Historic Places. It was built 1936-1939 following the modernist designs of the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It is situated within the beautiful Laurel Highlands near Fort Ligonier in the previous post. The weather was perfect.

I certainly can’t say much about the architecture and engineering (which are equally impressive), but I can note that the stones used in the house were quarried just down stream and are carefully used to reflect the stratigraphy of this little valley.

The local rock is a sandstone from the Pottsville Group (Upper Carboniferous), which is nearly level in this part of its exposure.

We didn’t go inside, but I got this one view through a window of the furnishings and open architecture. Mid-Century Modern, I heard this style called. A little too open for me, but then you’d never find me living in a house so completely surrounded by trees with a river flowing through it!

The “plunge pool” under the house catches the “falling water” from Bear Run. It produces a dramatic rumble through the house. The geologist in me, though, is a bit disappointed with the engineered outcrop — lots of vertical and horizontal surfaces. I suppose the flow must be carefully managed, though, because there’s a house built on top of it!

Fallingwater is worth the visit, even if it is just a walk around it in the woods.

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